DAN HYDE: The taxman is robbing dilligent savers trying to boost their state pension

You'd have to be an automaton or a cold-hearted crook to pocket someone's life savings without showing any remorse or shame.

Yet that is what tax officials are doing to diligent savers who try to boost their state pensions.

As we reveal here , confusion around the Government's last-minute National Insurance top-up scheme — which lets you fill gaps in your employment record — has led many over-50s to pay for extra state pension income that they cannot actually get.

Victims: Ursula Tonkyn and John Mullen, who lost £4,800 in total, after attempting to top up their state pensions

Many of those who have lost out say the advice they were given by staff at the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue & Customs was waffly at best and totally misleading at worst.

That's bad enough, but it is beyond disgraceful for the taxman to cling to payments made by innocent people in good faith.

Share this article

HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

The lack of contrition for this robbery beggars belief. Let me be absolutely clear about what's going on here: our Government is taking money from hard-up pensioners and giving them no service or goods in return. Nothing. Zilch.

If an energy company or bank tried that sort of trick, Theresa May and half the Cabinet would be up in arms. So the taxman, which she oversees, should be held to the same standard.

After badgering HMRC for a week on this issue, we seem to have made a breakthrough.

Late yesterday, a spokesman admitted it had made a pig's ear of cases we had highlighted. It also indicated it may take a more lenient view if other savers run into trouble.

I can't help worry that this is the tip of the iceberg. It is a fine example of the utter mess ministers made of the state pension when they launched the new £159.55-a-week 'flat rate' system last year.

Since then, it's become almost impossible to work out how much you're going to get, or why.

The flat rate, as Money Mail has repeatedly warned, is anything but flat, because all manner of deductions are made for quirks in your National Insurance record. Barely anybody actually gets the £159.55 at the moment.

The whole thing is now so confusing — with an old and new state pensions running side by side — I doubt many civil servants fully understand how it fits together.

It's no wonder, then, that the information dished out to 65-year-old John Mullen, retired French teacher Ursula Tonkyn, 63, and others is so unhelpful.

Quite how ordinary people are meant to get their head around the complexities I do not know.

The Government must stop cashing in on a confusion of its own making and sort out this muddle immediately.

Return our cash

How dare big-shot bankers at Lloyds try to deprive fraud victims of a refund. Money Mail's Pay Back Fraud Victims campaign, launched last week, has identified £130 million in frozen criminal funds that could be freed up if the Government changes the law.

Firms such as Barclays, TSB, HSBC, Santander and Nationwide are quite clear that, with legal assistance, banks could return some of this cash to victims. They are also on board with the idea of creating a compensation fund with anything left over.

Lloyds, however, thinks other projects are more deserving. These could include raising awareness of fraud and better technology to help battle scams. Bankers need to understand that this isn't their money.

Much of it was stolen from victims of sophisticated cons, who have been left out of pocket.

Banks have no right to requisition this cash for their own goals — no matter how altruistic those are made to sound. The suggestion from some firms that savers will get 'complacent' if given refunds is almost as insulting.

Brexit legislation might be eating up Government resources, but the sooner Security Minister Ben Wallace intervenes the better.

Card fee rip-off

Thank you for all the emails and letters about rip-off fees for paying by card. These companies are taking the mickey by whacking on an extra 3 per cent when the Government has been crystal-clear that any surcharge cannot be justified.

It's a shame ministers are waiting until January to introduce a ban. In the meantime, please keep grassing up the snakes who insist on ripping you off.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual

We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook.

You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.